Donald Trump to divert disaster aid for border detention

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The Trump administration is planning to use $271 million of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funds, including $155 million disaster relief aid, to detain and remove immigrants who cross the southern US border illegally.

The DHS notified Congress in late July that it intended to reprogramme funds from several agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and US Coast Guard – to detention centres managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said US media reports.

Officials say the motive behind the decision was to bolster President Donald Trump”s immigration and border strategy. A sum of $116 million will be earmarked to increase the number of adult beds in detention centres, the DHS said in a statement. Currently, the ICE has around 55,000 people in its custody, according to reports, most of them adults who recently arrived in the US and committed no other offence than crossing the border illegally.